Cardinal virtues – acting justly

Four cardinal virtues

St Augustine identified four cardinal virtues:

1. Prudence: prudence makes it possible for people to choose that act which here and now best helps them to move in the direction of their final end. The parts of prudence include reasoning, understanding, circumspection, foresight, docility, caution, and memory. But the entire process of prudence has its source in understanding. Without understanding human nature and the fundamental precepts of natural law, prudence is not possible.

2. Justice: justice is the virtue that perfects the will. Unless all people are by nature equal before God, there is no natural requirement on humanity's part to be just. Justice regulates the voluntary actions whereby one person is brought into contact with another. Justice is divided into distributive, commutative (particular) and legal (general) justice. See the section on Acting Justly below.

3. Fortitude: fortitude is a general virtue in that it implies a certain firmness of mind, which is necessary for the practice of any of the virtues. Fortitude is the virtue that enables us to curb our fears and to moderate our daring. It is the virtue that binds the will to the good of reason in the face of the greatest evils.

4. Temperance: temperance is principally, but not solely, concerned with the pleasures of food and drink and about sexual pleasures - those pleasures connected with the preservation of human life. The use of such pleasurable things must be judged according to the needs of this life. This calls for prudence, above all.

Acting justly

Justice is the second of the cardinal virtues. The virtues "are powers rooted in the presence of God, in grace, that enable us to establish and nurture healthy and life-giving relationships with God, our neighbour, the world, and the self" (Catholicism, pp. 926-7). Justice, giving others what they deserve, takes practice. It also takes prudence, the first of the cardinal virtues. Justice flows directly out of prudence. Prudence tells us the right thing to do in a particular circumstance. Prudence gives us the truth, God shows us the way, and we act. Justice is doing that right thing.

The Latin word, Justus, is based on a noun, jus, which means, "that which is binding or obligatory." The Law of Moses was binding upon all Jews. However, following God's law, revealed through Moses, was not meant to be a mindless act. Jews have always felt the Law is a living, growing law that requires human discernment.

Traditionally, justice is often broken into three broad categories, all of which address how we deal with each other, based on our understanding of what God calls us to do:

• Commutative justice. This exists in our relationships with others and covers a broad range from friendships to political relations between countries.

• Distributive justice. This deals with how society treats individuals especially the most weak and covers areas like fair wages and the distribution of resources.

• Social justice. This used to be called legal justice, and relates to the common good of society. It addresses issues such as poverty, health care and less developed nations, as well as the legal system.

Living justly means acting justly. Knowing the right thing to do (prudence) means little if the right thing isn't done. Actions, right actions, are what justice is all about. And right actions consist of more than just our dealings with God. Our dealings with God flow out to all those who belong to God. So justice means acting rightly toward others.

Further reading

Some useful sources for further reading:

• No Peace Without Justice. No justice without Forgiveness - The address of Pope John Paul II on World Peace Day 2002.

• Catechism of the Catholic Church.

• The New Jerome Biblical Commentary.

• The Collegeville Bible Commentary.

• Catholicism.

• Summa Theologica.

• The Modern Catholic Encyclopaedia.

• The Harper Collins Encyclopaedia of Catholicism.